


Darkness

by Severina



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: lands_of_magic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-26
Updated: 2015-09-26
Packaged: 2018-04-23 10:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4874041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gold tipped his head, eyed the man sweating before him. Too much time between hits, and now Maurice French twitched in his privation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> I had to write an AU -- so not my thing -- for a lands_of_magic challenge, and this is what I came up with. I actually ended up quite liking it.
> 
> * * *

The men who get hooked on his product never surprise him. The prick of the needle, the chill of the Darkness easing into the vein and promising oblivion. Escape from the drudgery of life. You don't have to be weak to be seduced by its power. You do, however, have to pay your bill when it comes due.

Gold tipped his head, eyed the man sweating before him. Too much time between hits, and now Maurice French twitched in his privation. 

"Please, Mr. Gold," the man said. "I'll sign over half my shop to you, I just need—"

"And of what use would I have for a run-down garden shop?" Gold interrupted. "Or a run-down florist, for that matter?" 

The man's daughter flinched at that before she lifted her chin, blue eyes flashing. If she feared him, she gave little sign of it. More steel in that one's fingernail than in her father's entire body.

"Please," French pleaded again. "What can I do to repay this debt? I'll do anything!"

Gold felt the corner of his lip upturn just slightly. The florist, with his trembling hands and darting eyes, made him sick. But the vow of _anything_ did not. "There is nothing that you can give me," he said dismissively, "to repay the money you owe."

And he turned his attention pointedly to the girl.

She caught on more quickly than her father, her eyes narrowing before she straightened her shoulders. When she spoke for the first time, her voice was as pure as the image she presented to the world. "What exactly are you saying, sir?"

Gold let the smile play about his lips for a moment before speaking. "I have a rather large… estate," he finally said.

The girl paled, but met his gaze unflinchingly. "And if I go with you into your… service, you'll forgive my father's debt? Wipe his slate clean?"

"Belle, you can't—" her father tried.

Gold inclined his head graciously. The current debt was but a pittance, and he recognized the glazed eyes and sunken pallor of Maurice French. He could always recognize a desperate soul. French would be back at Dove's door before the week was out, handing over whatever meager pennies he'd made from selling his half-dead peonies for another taste of sweet Darkness. And so the second act would begin.

"Then I will go with you," Belle said.

Gold felt the smile stretch his features into something wolfish before he stepped forward to wrap an arm lightly around her waist. She stumbled only slightly at his touch. "So you shall," he said.

Before he left he tossed a vial over his shoulder. The Darkness seethed inside, almost a living thing, and he heard Maurice French suck in a breath as he dived for the drug. The ampoule would be uncapped before they reached the door, the needle sinking into sallow flesh before the car bearing his daughter away had turned the corner. 

Gold smiled. Another successful day in Storybrooke.


End file.
